Steer and Drive a Car Using an iPhone

While I’d never advocate this hack from a safety perspective, it’s one of the most amazing uses of an iPhone I’ve seen yet. The real magic is in all of the motors and gizmos to make it work, but Make shows that the Do It Yourselfers at Waterloo Labs are actually driving a car using their handset. With a custom application, the gas and brake pedals are activated with slider controls — moving the sliders causes dedicated motors to depress the pedals using crescent wrenches. Steering is handled by another motor, but that one takes advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer. Simply “turning” the iPhone clockwise or counter-clockwise allows the vehicle to steer.